The Tempest
1. Caliban and Ariel are both supernatural beings, but they are very different. Contrast their characters. What might each character symbolize?
2. How could you write a contemporary screenplay for The Tempest? What would you add or change in terms of setting, characters, and special effects while maintaining the original integrity of the play?
3. Create the perfect cast of characters for a fantasy stage production of The Tempest.
4. Do you think that Prospero was merely practicing self-interest by forgiving those who had plotted against him? Think of a time in your life when you forgave someone for a wrong. Was the forgiveness unconditional, or did you hope to gain something from the person you were forgiving?
Caliban is bad, evil, gross all those bad words. He is one of the antagonists of the story. He wants Prospero dead, because he made Caliban a slave
ReplyDeleteAriel is also a slave but she/he is not evil, she/he does what it is told to do in order to gain freedom while Caliban is just doomed to be a slave forever.
I think that Prospero was more so looking out for himself. He had his revenge so he was able to forgive. Unconditional forgiveness is hard to give especially if what the person did was really wrong. I think I forgave the person not out of self interest, but simply because I didn't feel like being angry and holding onto that bad energy. Which actually is sort of gaining something I suppose.
ReplyDeleteI feel like Caliban maybe represents the evil and resentment and Ariel represents forgiveness and love. <3 yay!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Dea. Its like Caliban was Lucifer and Ariel was an angel or something.
ReplyDeleteOnce again, I agree with Dea. Prospero was worried about himself and what he was going to do to get revenge, which was completely selfish. He wasn't worried about his daughter or her love. It was completely awful that way.
ReplyDeleteMe personally have forgave someone unconditionally. However, I was raised that way. Forgive, don't forget kind of thing. I have forgave someone conditionally and it just left this awful feeling with me...
ReplyDeleteI am going to stray from the topics because I don't have someone to debate with but this play makes me realize why the tragedies were so great! They are a lot more intense and have more dramatic irony. Plus I feel like we invest more in the characters.
ReplyDeleteOops sorry Emily I didn't see your post because I hadn't refreshed! Yeah it sort of sucks if you don't forgive someone all the way because you still kinda feel mad and yuck inside.
ReplyDeleteThe perfect cast? That sounds like a project needed to be done in class. Like with Pride and Prejudice. I think this is something we should do tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, what I'm going to write has absolutely nothing to do with what I wrote before. I found in my aunt's stuff these mini Shakespeare books. Leather and everything. So I read part of The Tempest in it, and having the names abbreviated made it way more confusing.
Dea I agree with that Prospero had revenge so therefore he could forgive his conniving brother and the rest of the crew. For me its not so much that I 100% forgive someone,it's just that it is hard to hold on to that anger for long periods of time and eventually all that happened just fades away.
ReplyDeleteI did like The Tempest, because there were no deaths, or major betrayals. It had a happy ending which was a different thing for Shakespeare. Everyone got the revenge they needed and in the end Miranda and Ferdinand got married!
ReplyDeleteIf I were to do a modern version of The Tempest I would keep it pretty close to how it was written. However I would make the setting different like in a city or something more modern. I would make Ariel a girl, and make Caliban even more gross than he is depicted.
ReplyDeleteI don't know that the reason Prospero was able to forgive was because he got his revenge necessarily, so much as it was that he was taking these extreme measures on members of his own family. He wanted revenge, but doing something that evil really requires a lack of conscience, and Prospero exhibited that he doesn't quite lack it enough to pull off that much revenge.
ReplyDeleteMy perfect cast of characters would go as such:
ReplyDeleteProspero - Liam Neeson
Ariel - Emma Watson
Miranda - Scarlett Johansson
Caliban - Vince Vaughn
Ferdinand - Ryan Reynolds
Alonso - Tom Selleck
Antonio - Ewan McGregor(he did a good job at being Iago)
Sebastian - Matt Damon
Gonzalo - Betty White
Trinculo - Jim Carrey
Stefano - Zach Galifianakis
Boatswain - Sean Connory
My modern version of the tempest would obviously include the actors and actresses I just mentioned, and it would be set on the moon. Yea, how about that. The moon. Instead of a ship, they'd be in a rocket. And Prospero would be like an alien or something. Yea, that'd be cool. Oh, and Ariel would be a robot or something... yea.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with Dea. You get sick of the tragedies because everybody is dead at the end, but then you read The Tempest and you're left thinking, "Isn't anybody gonna die?" Morbid, I know, but they're fictional characters, so I'm only fictionally sick in the head. The tragedies just draw you in more, because they're much more dramatic. You can see the impending doom before the characters do, and it really makes you want to help them, but you can't.
ReplyDeleteCaliban is grotesque and evil, Ariel is sweet and good, but victimized. Caliban is out for destruction, Ariel is a servant. Caliban symbolizes bad, Ariel symbolizes good.
ReplyDeleteIf I were to write a screenplay for The Tempest, I would try to modernize it. It would be set in a federal prison. Everything else would stay pretty much the same though. Most of the play's original integrity would remain intact.
ReplyDeleteTom Cruise-Prospero
ReplyDeleteHilary Duff-Miranda
Neil Patrick Harris-Ariel
John Waters-Caliban
Franz Ferdinand-Ferdinand
Robert De Niro-Alonso
Antonio Banderas-Antonio
Jonah Hill-Sebastian
Mike Myers-Gonzalo
Trinculo-Eddie Murphy
Stephano-Dana Carvey
Boatswain-Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson
I think Prospero was truly sorry. I have, however, forgiven others simply for self-interest. This is what they call the "guilt trip."
ReplyDelete